Recent News Releases

Walk-On's co-owners Brandon Landry and Drew Brees, partnering with local entrepreneurs Jacob Dugas and Scott Fargason, are launching a new fast-casual restaurant concept in Baton Rouge--Smalls Sliders--with a framework that can be scaled for franchise opportunities.

The Ideation Lab in the E. J. Ourso College of Business has transformed into the “Tiger Den” Incubator for students running businesses while attending LSU to have a business incubator space in the BEC. The Tiger Den Incubator is an extension of the Student Incubator at Innovation Park and will offer mentorship, co-working space, 3D printer access and more. Non-Tiger Den residents will also be able to access the 3D printers for class projects and prototype ideas.

Jean McGuire, the William W. Rucks IV Endowed Chair and professor of Management and Department Chair and professor, Rucks Department of Management, has accepted an invitation to join the editorial board of Corporate Governance: An International Review (CGIR).

Jean McGuire, the William W. Rucks IV Endowed Chair and professor of Management and Department Chair and professor, Rucks Department of Management, has accepted an invitation to join the editorial board of Corporate Governance: An International Review (CGIR).

The Ideation Lab in the E. J. Ourso College of Business has transformed into the "Tiger Den" Incubator for students running businesses while attending LSU to have a business incubator space in the BEC. The Tiger Den Incubator is an extension of the Student Incubator at Innovation Park and will offer mentorship, co-working space, 3D printer access and more. Non-Tiger Den residents will also be able to access the 3D printers for class projects and prototype ideas.

The LSU Flores MBA Association will host its fourth annual charity gala benefiting the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition at 7:00 p.m. Friday, March 29, 2019, at the Capitol Park Museum, 660 N. Fourth St. in Baton Rouge. Last year, the gala raised more than $18,000 for the new freestanding Our Lady of the Lake Children's Hospital.

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. – Gabriele Piccoli, Edward G. Schlieder Endowed Chair of Information Sciences and professor at Stephenson Department of Entrepreneurship & Information Systems in the E. J. Ourso College of Business has been named to the first Research Advisory Board of the Advanced Practices Council.

Gabriele Piccoli, Edward G. Schlieder Endowed Chair of Information Sciences and professor at Stephenson Department of Entrepreneurship & Information Systems in the E. J. Ourso College of Business has been named to the first Research Advisory Board of the Advanced Practices Council.

Gabriele Piccoli, Chair of Information Sciences, professor and Undergraduate Honors Advisor at Stephenson Department of Entrepreneurship and Information Systems in the E.J. Ourso College of Business has been named to the first Research Advisory Board of the Advanced Practices Council.

E. J. Ourso and Jake Netterville are profiled in the Baton Rouge Business Report out March 12 for their induction into the 2019 Baton Rouge Business Awards and Hall of Fame. Business Report and Junior Achievement announced the individuals and companies to be honored at the 2019 Business Awards & Hall of Fame gala in January. The honorees are selected by a community panel of judges and profiled in Business Report's new cover package and include business leaders who persevered to build their own businesses from the ground up as well as those called upon to lead their family businesses into the next generation.

BATON ROUGE – A number of LSU programs are recognized in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 Best Graduate Schools rankings, including the Flores MBA, public administration, education and social work programs, which all moved up in the rankings this year.

Professor Emeritus William C. Black has received the 2019 Doctoral Educator's Award from the Southeast Marketing Symposium member Universities. The award recognizes those individuals who have made significant and sustained contributions to marketing doctoral education during their careers.

Jean McGuire, PhD, the William W. Rucks IV Endowed Chair and professor of management and department chair and professor, Rucks Department of Management, has accepted an invitation to join the editorial board of Corporate Governance: An International Review (CGIR).

LSU Executive Education will host its Breakfast to Business event Tuesday, April 23, 2019, at 7:30 a.m. at the Business Education Complex, home of LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business. The topic will be Reigning in Employer Health Care Costs.

The Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute organizes StartupWeekend Baton Rouge in pursuit of better experiential learning for LSU students and the local community. As the name suggests, StartupWeekend is a Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday commitment to sharing ideas, discovering opportunities, and taking a step toward a launching a business. This year, the event will start at 4:30 p.m. Friday, March 15, at the Business Education Complex (BEC) and end at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, March 17.

Sanaz Aghazadeh, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Accounting, was awarded the Best Midyear Meeting Paper Award by the American Accounting Association at their 2019 Auditing Midyear Meeting in January 2019. Aghazadeh's paper, Revealing Oz: Audit Firm Partners' Experiences with National Office Consultations, finds that the audit firm national office identity has shifted in recent years toward a more user-friendly entity that collaborates closely with engagement teams and also includes clients in consultations. The paper further discusses the implications for regulators, practitioners and researchers.

For the second year in a row, a team of LSU's Flores MBA students placed fifth out of 32 teams in the 15th Annual 2019 KeyBank Foundation Minority MBA Case Competition at KeyBank headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio.

The financial crisis of 2008 was the most devastating global economic event since the Great Depression but many students do not know much about it except for what they read in books and discuss in class. Because an understanding of the "Great Recession" of 2008 is so important to an understanding of our current economy and because the event is still fresh in the minds of potential employers, the Department of Finance is presenting a three-part Financial Crisis Movie Night series to help students develop an appreciation for the root causes of the event and how the world responded.

LSU Professional Sales students recently competed in business-to-business, or B2B, sales scenarios for the Jack W. Salisbury Scholarship Awards during the E. J. Ourso College of Business Professional Sales Institute's fourth annual Internal Sales Competition and Career Fair.

Baton Rouge - The Real Estate Research Institute (RERI) received a $10,000 donation from the Commercial Investment Division of the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors (CID) Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2019, at the CID's quarterly luncheon. The RERI and the CID have partnered in presenting the annual TRENDS in Real Estate Seminar since 1988 to provide a variety of real estate industry professionals the opportunity to come together and examine the state of the industry in our area, and to help focus industry professionals on emerging trends, whatever their specialty.

BATON ROUGE – Managers, section leaders and other experienced professionals who seek to advance to executive-level leadership are encouraged to register for LSU Executive Education’s Executive Development Program or EDP. The next session of this non-consecutive, six-day program will be held Feb. 4-6, 2019 and March 18-20, 2019.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Executive Education will offer its intensive Project Management Professional Certification Prep Course January 28-31 at the Business Education Complex, home of LSU’s E. J. Ourso College of Business. Early bird registration will close at 4 p.m. on December 7, 2018 and regular registration will close at 4 p.m. on January 18.

BATON ROUGE - A team of four undergraduate students in the E. J. Ourso College of Business has advanced to the southwest regional finals of the CFA Institute Research Challenge, an intercollegiate competition sponsored by the CFA Institute in which leading industry professionals teach business and finance students how to research, write and present a report recommending a "buy," "sell," or "hold" position on a publicly traded company. The four students, all undergraduate finance seniors from Baton Rouge, are Matthew Crapanzano, Michael Hubbell, Brandt Green and Sam Chastain.

BATON ROUGE - The E. J. Ourso College of Business Department of Accounting will host its annual Regional Research Conference Friday, March 1, 2019, in the Business Education Complex with Bharat Sarath, PhD, as this year’s speaker. Accounting faculty from colleges throughout Louisiana are invited to attend.

A team from LSU's Diversity and Inclusion in the Office of Business Student Success placed runner-up at the 2019 National Diversity Case Competition (NDCC) at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business.

BATON ROUGE - The Department of Economics presents faculty and teaching assistant awards each year to outstanding instructors and teaching assistants as well as to undergraduate students who excel in macroeconomics, microeconomics and econometrics. The 2018 awards were presented by Department Chair Faik Koray. The recipients of the awards are listed below.

BATON ROUGE- The LSU Flores MBA Program has launched a one-year MBA track that's geared toward students who hold an undergraduate business degree from an accredited institution. Beginning in June, this new one-year MBA format will allow students to complete the MBA degree in just 11 months.

BATON ROUGE – LSU sophomore Kailyn Rainey will serve as Queen Zulu 2019 and the Golden Band from Tigerland will join her to march on Mardi Gras day in the Zulu parade in New Orleans. Kailyn is the first LSU student to be selected as Queen Zulu in the parade’s long and colorful history.

BATON ROUGE - International Trade & Finance major, Abimbola Ogundare was recently awarded an LSU Discover Undergraduate Research Grant for spring 2019. We spoke with her about how she came to get into research, what her interests are and advice for other undergraduate students.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business has announced the members of its 2019 Hall of Distinction Class - Marcela Donadio, Robert Schneckenburger and Jeff Zehnder. This year's class will be inducted at the Hall of Distinction Banquet, which the college will host at the Business Education Complex on Friday, March 22.

The Professional Sales Institute at the E. J. Ourso College of Business will host its 2019 Golf Tournament on April 12, 2019 at the LSU Golf Course starting at 8:00 am followed by a Lunch and Awards Ceremony at Walk-Ons Bistreaux & Bar.

BATON ROUGE - The Flores MBA program held its annual Corporate Communications Case Competition (CCC) on January 24, 2019. A team comprised of two second-year students, Christopher McGehee and Christina Vassiliou, won first place along with $1,250 in prize money.

BATON ROUGE - Master of Analytics student Lauren Agrigento of Chicago, IL has been named a 2019 SAS® Global Forum Student Ambassador by the SAS Institute, an American multinational developer of analytics software based in Cary, North Carolina. She is the third LSU student to be named a SAS® Global Forum Student Ambassador since 2013.

BATON ROUGE - ForensicColleges.com, an on-line resource specializing in forensic accounting programs across the country, has recognized the Master of Accountancy degree program in the E. J. Ourso College of Business' Department of Accounting for excellence in combating securities and commodities fraud. Professor Larry Crumbley was also recognized as an expert in the field.

Baton Rouge - Emmy Hicks, a Master of Public Administration student from Thibodaux, LA in the E. J. Ourso College of Business Public Administration Institute, has been accepted into the 2019 Class of Founders' Fellows by the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA).

Professor Don M. Chance, CFA, holder of the James C. Flores Endowed Chair of MBA Studies and a Professor in the Department of Finance at LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business has been approved as a visiting scholar at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia for two weeks during the Fall 2019 semester.

The Department of Finance is sponsoring two undergraduate teams for the 2019 Community Bank Case Study Competition and students are asked to sign up with Mr. Brian Andrews at andrews@lsu.edu by Wednesday, January 30, 2019.

LSU Professional Sales students will be competing in business-to-business, or B2B, sales scenarios for the Jack W. Salisbury Scholarship Awards during the E. J. Ourso College of Business Professional Sales Institute's fourth annual Internal Sales Competition and Career Fair on February 21, 2019.

BATON ROUGE - Disney Institute is bringing its renowned professional development course, Disney's Approach to Business Excellence, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana on April 16, 2019. Sponsored by LSU Executive Education the one-day event will help area professionals focus on the power of leadership values, discover how customer loyalty can be established, and gain insight into how organizational culture is strengthened.

The research of Department of Finance PhD Student Mobina Shafaati has been recognized with a $30,000 (Canadian) grant from the Canadian Derivatives Institute. Shafaati's research, entitled Decomposing the Systematic and Idiosyncratic Components of the Diffusive and Tail Risks in Individual Equity Options, examines the measurement of the effects of sudden and extreme price movements on the risk of individual stocks as observed in the prices of options on those stocks.

Professor Lea Eilers, a researcher with the RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research (RWI) at their Essen, Germany-based Research Data Center FDZ Ruhr spent several weeks during the Fall 2018 semester collaborating and researching with Professor Kelley Pace, Director of the Real Estate Research Institute in the Department of Finance at LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business

Professor Jim Richardson of the Public Administration Institute at LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business is ending 30 years of service as the private economist on the Louisiana Revenue Estimating Conference, the panel with the constitutional authority and responsibility to provide official revenue estimates for the state.

BATON ROUGE - Frederick "Rick" Wolfert (Business, '76) was profiled in the LSU Foundation Cornerstone magazine. He is a graduate of the '76 business class and was a student-athlete on the LSU basketball team.

BATON ROUGE - Tom (Business, ’82) and Lisa (Business, ’89; Law, ’94) Adamek, longtime philanthropic supporters of the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business, have made their largest gift to date in support of the Department of Finance and the Office of Business Student Success. The Adameks’ generosity will provide tools for future business leaders to enter careers that suit their talents, interests and values.

BATON ROUGE - On Thursday, November 15, 2018 the Sales and Marketing Executives (SME) of Baton Rouge hosted their annual awards banquet. This event recognizes the achievements of those in the sales and marketing field within the area.

BATON ROUGE - With a win at regionals, a team of LSU accounting students will advance to compete in Deloitte’s national 2019 Audit Innovation Campus Challenge (AICC) after winning at the regional level on November 16th in Houston.

BATON ROUGE - On November 9, 2018 four second-year Flores MBA students competed at The 12th Annual National MBA Case Competition in Ethical Leadership at Baylor University. The graduate team was comprised of Cayden Bergeron, Polina Dozortseva, Garrett McCaskill and Christopher McGehee. They competed among 12 schools from the south and Midwest.

Baton Rouge--The central issue debated at each successive legislative session for over a decade,
Louisiana's significant fiscal problems have remained unresolved despite efforts to mitigate the state's
financial woes and avoid cutting key services or resorting to stop-gap solutions. Louisiana created its
current tax structure in the 1970s, with some subsequent revisions in response to new economic realities.
While many developments in Louisiana's fiscal picture lie outside the state's control, other changes
including shifting tax rates, shrinking the tax base, and increasing the number of exemptions, deductions,
and tax credits, resulted from decisions made by the legislative body. In Exploring Long-Term
Solutions for Louisiana's Tax System, James A. Richardson, Steven M. Sheffrin, James Alm, and
other contributors advocate for establishing financial reforms geared to long-term change and more stable
fiscal prospects.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU Department of Finance will offer a comprehensive Credit Analyst Certification Program beginning in January 2019. The course has been developed in cooperation with the Louisiana Bankers Association as a service to regional and community banks.

BATON ROUGE - Registration is open now for the 2019 LSU Tax Seminar to be held Jan. 3-4, at the Business Education Complex on the LSU campus. This seminar is sponsored by the Department of Accounting in the E. J. Ourso College of Business.

BATON ROUGE - The Louisiana Small Business Development Center (LSBDC) and LSU are embarking on a venture that will significantly add to the support effort for consulting and training small businesses and entrepreneurs in Baton Rouge.

BATON ROUGE - With the opening of a satellite office in the LSU Business Education Complex, the Louisiana Small Business Development Center (LSBDC) and LSU are embarking on a venture that will significantly add to the support effort for consulting and training small businesses and entrepreneurs in Baton Rouge.

BATON ROUGE - To grow the stream of talented entrepreneurs willing to start new businesses and innovate within existing ones, the LSU Stephenson Department of Entrepreneurship & Information Systems offers the Entrepreneurship Fellows Program. Any LSU student may apply for the yearlong program; fellows are chosen through a competitive application process.

BATON ROUGE - Gonzales-native Lee LeBlanc will graduate with a marketing degree in December. He was one of three LSU students chosen for the recent University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire's Great Northwoods Sales Warm-Up competition. LeBlanc talked with us about his aspirations and experience before the competition.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU Professional Sales Institute sent three professional sales students to compete in the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire's Great Northwoods Sales Warm-Up, a national collegiate sales competition showcasing the talents of sales and marketing students.
Ethan Ross Alexander, a junior marketing major from Baton Rouge, finished third overall. Before the competition, we caught up with Alexander to learn more about his experience.

Anderson Hutchins, a graduating senior in the professional sales concentration, was one of three LSU students selected to compete in the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire's Great Northwoods Sales Warm-Up. Before the competition, we sat down with the Lake Charles native to learn about his thoughts about the competition and future plans.

BATON ROUGE - "Entrepreneurship Fellows was an opportunity for me to not simply be educated, but enlightened," said Creighton K. Moxey, a 2018 graduate with a BS in general business and minor in entrepreneurship. "The program exposed me to information that has given me a head start on my entrepreneurial journey. My life's trajectory has changed, and it's directly correlated to Entrepreneurship Fellows."

BATON ROUGE - Samira Fallah, a PhD candidate in the Rucks Department of Management in Louisiana State University's E. J. Ourso College of Business, co-authored a paper published by the European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR).

BATON ROUGE - Dr. Raphael W. Bostic, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, will be the featured guest speaker at the LSU Center for Energy Studies’ annual fall conference, Energy Summit™. The conference will take place Wednesday, October 24, in the Dalton J. Woods Auditorium of the LSU Energy, Coast & Environment Building.

BATON ROUGE – LSU has formally announced selections for the 2018 Homecoming Court. The court is comprised of 14 exceptional students that represent the sophomore, junior, and senior undergraduate classifications plus graduate, law, and veterinary school students, and many of the university’s most dynamic student organizations.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU E. J. Ourso College is hosting a Business Graduate Program Fair on Tuesday, Oct. 30 from 11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. in the rotunda of the LSU Business Education Complex, 501 South Quad Drive.

BATON ROUGE - Military veterans with successful businesses are encouraged to apply for the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Military Veterans - Accelerate (EBV Accelerate). Delivered in three-phases, this program will be hosted by LSU Executive Education in early 2019.

BATON ROUGE - The Class of 2018-2019 Rucks Fellows have been announced by the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business Rucks Department of Management. They are David Boh of Metairie, La.; Ceara Cabezon of Baton Rouge; Nicole Cadman of Port Barre, La.; Caroline Campagna of Baton Rouge; Alexis David of Central, La.; Morgan Evans of Baton Rouge; Antonia Rosinia of New Orleans; Ryder Rule of Shreveport, La.; Tiger Scheyd of Destin, Fla.; Catherine Stewart of Baton Rouge and Jordan Templet of Prairieville, La.

BATON ROUGE - The Public Administration Institute, part of LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business, hosted the inaugural Governor's Fellows Program in Louisiana Government this summer. PAI director Jared Llorens supervised the program's academic components.

BATON ROUGE - The inaugural LSU Sales Symposium will benefit sales professionals at all levels with sessions exploring the latest in sales management, CRM and sales technology, sales messaging and inbound sales and marketing. The symposium will be held from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. on Nov. 16 at the Business Education Complex on the LSU campus.

BATON ROUGE - Research demonstrates that customer gratitude is linked to increases in share of wallet, sales revenue, sales growth and customer commitment. What about the role of salesperson gratitude in buyer-seller relationships?

BATON ROUGE - The LSU E. J. Ourso College ranked 108th overall in the U.S. News & World Report's "Best Undergraduate Business Programs" rankings released earlier this month. This year's ranking places the college in the top quarter of all business schools and is a slight increase from the college's 109th ranking in 2017.

BATON ROUGE – In U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 edition of Best Colleges, LSU is ranked in the top tier for “Best National Universities” for the 11th-straight year and is the only public university in Louisiana ranked in the top tier this year.

BATON ROUGE - A recent Wall Street Journal article, "France Takes On Cellphone Addiction With a Ban in Schools" quotes Louis-Philippe Beland, an assistant professor in the LSU Department of Economics, and mentions his study on the impact of banning mobile phone use in schools.

BATON ROUGE - LSU announces the list of the Eighth Annual LSU 100: Fastest Growing Tiger Businesses. The LSU 100 is a highly competitive program that identifies, recognizes and celebrates the 100 fastest growing LSU graduate-owned or LSU graduate-led businesses in the world. Honorees will be recognized and the rankings revealed at a black-tie-optional gala to be held at L'Auberge Casino Hotel on Friday, Nov. 16, 2018 in Baton Rouge.

BATON ROUGE - Several graduates of the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business have been named to the 2019 Edition of Best Lawyers, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession.

BATON ROUGE - Is aggressive revenue management by a supplier greater when the supplier and their major customer engage the same office-level auditor and when the major customer makes significant purchases from the supplier? These questions are at the core of a study conducted by Professor Ken Reichelt, LSU Department of Accounting, and co-authors Hsihui Chang, Drexel University; Hsin-Chi Chen, Tunghai University and Jengfang Chen, Macquarie University.

BATON ROUGE - The Public Administration Institute, a part of LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business, met the high standards for continued accreditation by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA).

BATON ROUGE – Today, Gov. John Bel Edwards praised a report showing that the number of residents who are uninsured has fallen to half of what it was in 2015 and more Louisianans are getting better access to care since Louisiana expanded Medicaid, according to the 2017 Louisiana Health Insurance Survey.

BATON ROUGE - Senior Kyle Mancuso is the new president of the Phi Chapter of Beta Alpha Psi. He shared his thoughts on his organization, the benefits of student involvement and the importance of going to class.

BATON ROUGE -LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business alumnus Phil Adra, CFP, CPA, CLU and CLTC, was recently honored with membership in Northwestern Mutual's 2018 Forum Group. Members of this elite group are recognized for their commitment to helping clients achieve financial security.

BATON ROUGE - Professional development and student involvement are at the core of "Jumping into Business," the annual back-to-school event for LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business students. Scheduled for Aug. 28-29, Jumping into Business is hosted by the Business College Council.

program alumni and other practitioners on Oct. 15-16, 2018. The conference, to be held at L'Auberge Casino Hotel in Baton Rouge, allows attendees to network and share ideas while gaining continuing professional education credit.

BATON ROUGE - Young Entrepreneurs Academy of Baton Rouge (YEA BR) announces three lead instructors for the coming academic year. These accomplished professors and business leaders will adopt a proven national curriculum to guide select students as they generate business ideas, write business plans, pitch to an investor panel, and launch companies.

BATON ROUGE - The Society of Louisiana Certified Public Accountants (LCPA) recently honored Baton Rouge CPAs, J. Gerard "Jerry" Jolly, Jeffrey Koonce, Layne McDaniel, and Peggy Scott for their remarkable contributions to the CPA profession and the community. All four honorees are graduates of the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business was ranked No. 3 on list of the "50 Most Beautiful Business Schools" compiled by TopManagementDegrees.com, a guide to business and management education.

BATON ROUGE – In July 2018, Eduniversal released it's Business School Rankings and Best Master Rankings. Eduniversal ranked the E. J. Ourso College of Business No. 20 in the Three Palmes of Excellence: Excellent Business School with Reinforcing International Influence category. lt’s newest best masters rankings placed the Master of Science in Finance No. 40 in the Best Masters Ranking in Corporate Finance and placed the Master of Public Administration No. 34 in Public Administration/Management among public colleges and universities in the United States.

BATON ROUGE - Cory Hutchinson, an associate professor for research in the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business and director of the Highway Safety Research Group (HSRG), was one of six experts invited to present a lightning talk during the recent U.S. Department of Transportation Safety Data Forum.

BATON ROUGE - A paper authored by a group including two LSU professors was recently honored by The Data Base for Advances in Information Systems, a quarterly publication of the Association of Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Management Information Systems (ACM SIGMIS).

BATON ROUGE - Thomas Greckhamer, a professor in the Rucks Department of Management in Louisiana State University's E. J. Ourso College of Business, was the keynote speaker at the International QCA Summer Workshop 2018 held May 28-30 at the University of Wuppertal.

BATON ROUGE - The Center for Energy Studies has awarded scholarships for the 2018-19 academic year to three students majoring in energy-related fields, including one student in the E. J. Ourso College of Business.

BATON ROUGE - Tara Haney, vice president of operations for Health Leaders Network (HLN), was recognized by the Catholic Health Association (CHA) as one of Tomorrow's Leaders during the organization's annual awards banquet at the 2018 Assembly in San Diego.

BATON ROUGE - The Association for the Study of Religion, Economics and Culture (ASREC) selected Naci Mocan, a professor in the LSU Department of Economics, as a keynote speaker for the organization's European graduate student workshop held at the University of Luxembourg.

BATON ROUGE - Erin Kilpatrick, who earned both a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Master of Accountancy from the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business, was recently announced as one of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) 2017 Elijah Watt Sells Award winners.

BATON ROUGE – LSU Campus Sustainability, LSU Dining and student government recently launched a program that will divert food waste from local landfills by providing produce and bakery items to local farmers who will use the scraps as animal feed.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Executive Education will offer its intensive Project Management Certification Prep Course Aug. 27-30 at the Business Education Complex, home of LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business. Registration will close at 4 p.m. on Aug. 17.

BATON ROUGE - "Have we rinsed off the horrors of the credit crisis that nearly toppled the global economy just ten years ago, only to repeat the mistake of ignoring warning signs today?" That is the question that Brian Andrews, an instructor in LSU Department of Finance, posed during his presentation at Baton Rouge TRENDS, an annual real estate seminar held April 18.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Executive Education's Rising Stars Program is accepting registrations for its October cohort. The program will run Oct. 15-17 at the Business Education Complex home of the LSU E. J. Ourso College. The deadline to register is Oct. 5.

BATON ROUGE - Managers, section leaders and other experienced professionals who seek to advance to executive-level leadership are encouraged to register for LSU Executive Education's Executive Development Program or EDP. The next session of this non-consecutive, six-day program will be held Feb. 4-6, 2019 and March 18-20, 2019.

BATON ROUGE - Louisiana's coast is an economic and cultural resource. Yet, sea level rise and subsidence continue to threaten it. The challenges of coastal land loss, cultural preservation and resilience amidst a dynamic environment are some of the topics the nearly 1,000 experts will present and discuss at the biennial State of the Coast conference on May 30-June 1. The conference organized by the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana will be held at the Ernest Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. Media are invited to attend and registration fees are waived for members of the media.

BATON ROUGE - Five students from the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business were among those selected for Securities America's Link to the Future scholarship which will enable them to attend the organization's national conference to be held in New Orleans, June 3-6.

BATON ROUGE - Marketing students from the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business left the 2018 Pi Sigma Epsilon National Convention with industry insights, professional contacts and several prestigious awards. Pi Sigma Epsilon is a professional fraternity for students and practitioners in marketing and sales management.

BATON ROUGE - Female entrepreneurs have been at a disadvantage when seeking financial backing from traditional sources, but new research shows that crowdfunding investors view them as more trustworthy, making female-led projects more likely to secure support through crowdfunding platforms.

BATON ROUGE - In addition to a full range of open-enrollment professional education opportunities, LSU Executive Education also works with companies to design custom courses that link learning goals to business strategy.

BATON ROUGE - More than 35 students were presented with scholarships in recognition of their academic accomplishments at the Department of Accounting's annual awards banquet.
Additionally, Assistant Professor Jared Soileau was given the Vincent C. Brenner Award, presented annually to the untenured faculty member who has been most productive in academic research.

BATON ROUGE – LSU has recognized 32 students as the Class of 2018 for Leadership LSU, an annual spring program coordinated by LSU Campus Life on behalf of the LSU Office of the Dean of Students. Twenty-eight of the 32 students in the Class of 2018 for Leadership LSU are undergraduates in their senior year. Five are juniors and two are graduate students (noted in listing). Students in the class are from five states and three countries.

BATON ROUGE – Eighteen LSU graduates were recognized during the LSU Spring Commissioning Ceremony on Thursday, May 10, in the Union Theater. Maj. Gen. Carl F. Ernst, an LSU alumnus from New Orleans, was the guest speaker for the ceremony and gave the commissioning oath.

BATON ROUGE - LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business faculty member Carlos Slawson has been named a recipient of the 2018 Jacobs Professor of Excellence Award, which is presented by LSU's Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes.

BATON ROUGE - Peter Jenkins, a graduate of the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business and current PhD candidate at the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, organized and moderated a forum titled "The Future of Transgender and Non-Binary People."

BATON ROUGE - LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business recently recognized student achievement at its 2018 Spring Scholarship Reception. Held in the Rotunda of the Business Education Complex, the event brought together scholarship recipients and donors.

BATON ROUGE - Professor Faik Koray has been selected as the next chair of the LSU Department of Economics. Koray will take on the position in August when Professor Robert Newman steps down after 15 years of service as department chair.

BATON ROUGE - E. J. Ourso College of Business alumna Kim Hunter Reed has been selected as Louisiana's next commissioner of higher education. She will oversee policy governing the state's public colleges and more than 200,000 students.

BATON ROUGE - Thomas Greckhamer, a professor in the Rucks Department of Management in Louisiana State University's E. J. Ourso College of Business, was invited to speak at universities in Canada and Australia this spring.

BATON ROUGE - Inventions that will improve cancer treatment, prolong cell phone battery life and even eliminate a disease in horses are among the 15 new LSU patents that will be recognized at the Inventorship Showcase on April 25.
At the event, the Excellence in Innovation award will be given to the E. J. Ourso College of Business for its efforts in creating the Stephenson Department of Entrepreneurship & Information Systems, which launched a new bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship this academic year. Recognizing that all LSU students can benefit from an entrepreneurship program, it is open to students pursuing a concurrent degree in any college on the LSU campus. The 12 currently enrolled entrepreneurship students are combining their entrepreneurship degree with engineering, Spanish, music, business and textiles, apparel and merchandising.

BATON ROUGE - LSU master of public administration students Christina Bastien and Devon Camarota represented the university at the 2018 NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition held Feb. 24 at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Students were tasked with fighting a pandemic using computer-based simulated game play.

BATON ROUGE - LSU won first place in the 2018 SEC MBA Case Competition held at the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business, April 12-14. The winning team was comprised of Jack Anjier of New Orleans, La.; Daniel Hofmann of Furth, Germany; Michael Lacombe of Gonzales, La. and Roman Lantukh of Ivanivka, Ukraine. Luke Cashen, an instructor in the LSU Flores MBA Program, was the team's advisor. This is the first SEC MBA Case Competition Championship for the university.

LSU will host the 2018 SEC MBA Case Competition on April 12-14. The event will feature teams of MBA students solving a business problem facing Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, a Louisiana-based restaurant company. The media is invited to the final presentations and awards ceremony to be held Saturday, April 14.

BATON ROUGE - LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business alumnus Robert "Bobby" J. Crifasi, general manager of New Orleans Country Club, was elected president of the Club Managers Association of America (CMAA) Board of Directors at its 91st World Conference on Club Management.

BATON ROUGE - Chris-Annie Joseph, a senior management major in the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business, was awarded a 2018 LSU Alumni Association International Student Scholarship during the International Fusion celebration held Friday, March 23.

BATON ROUGE – The Louisiana Veteran Entrepreneurship Program, or LVEP, is accepting applications from Louisiana military personnel, including active duty, reservists and veterans, who are interested in starting a business. The deadline to submit applications is April 17.

BATON ROUGE - Robert M. Stuart Jr., former national head of middle market corporate banking at Capital One, has joined the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business Department of Finance as an executive-in-residence.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU Flores MBA Association raised more than $18,000 for Our Lady of the Lake Children's Hospital during its third annual charity gala held at the Capitol Park Museum on Feb. 22, 2018.

BATON ROUGE - A team of LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business students is one of eight student groups selected to present to data professionals during the 2018 SAS Global Forum to be held April 8-11 in Denver.

BATON ROUGE - Jake Credo, a senior inspector with the U.S. Marshal Service's Investigative Operations Division's Technical Operations Group, received a 2017 Top Cop runner-up award from the National Association of Police Organizations.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Professional Sales Institute students turned in impressive performances during the 2018 Bayou Sales Challenge held at Nicholls State University on March 1-2, 2018. Lauren Olivier, a sophomore marketing major from Catahoula, La., was named the first-place overall individual champion. The LSU Sales Team finished the competition second behind Florida State University.

BATON ROUGE - The E. J. Ourso College of Business Department of Accounting hosted its annual Regional Research Conference on March 2 in the Business Education Complex with the University of Georgia's C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry Distinguished Chair in Business Administration Ted Christensen and the University of North Carolina's Jeffrey Hoopes serving as the workshop speakers.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Professional Sales students recently competed in business-to-business, or B2B, sales scenarios for the Jack W. Salisbury Scholarship Awards during the E. J. Ourso College of Business Professional Sales Institute's third annual Internal Sales Competition and Career Fair.

BATON ROUGE - Those with the creativity and determination to pursue entrepreneurship are encouraged to join like-minded innovators during Startup Weekend Baton Rouge to be held March 9-11 at the LSU Business Education Complex.

BATON ROUGE - Diversity officers, human resource managers and other professionals working to create an atmosphere of diversity and inclusion in their organizations are encouraged to attend the 3rd Annual SEC Business School Diversity Conference to be held March 7-9 at the LSU Business Education Complex, home to the E. J. Ourso College of Business.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Campus Life, a department within the Office of the Dean of Students, has awarded the 2017 Tom W. Dutton Scholarship Award for participation and leadership in campus and community service to ten female students who were nominated and who applied for consideration. Three of the recipients are from the E. J. Ourso College of Business -- Christina Bastien, a public administration graduate student from Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Megan Manno, an accounting senior from Houma, La. and Alix Perry, an accounting senior from Carencro, La.

BATON ROUGE - The Ascension Chamber of Commerce named Amy Lambert as its 2017 Individual of the Year at the annual awards banquet on Feb. 7, 2018. Lambert, a senior executive assistant at Neighbors Federal Credit Union, is a 1997 graduate of LSU's School of Education and a 2009 graduate of the LSU Flores MBA Program, part of the E. J. Ourso College of Business.

BATON ROUGE - LSU professional sales students will compete for scholarships in the E. J. Ourso College of Business Professional Sales Institute's third annual Internal Sales Competition and Career Fair from 8 a.m. - 3 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 22. The event is open to the press.

BATON ROUGE - Phil Frost, director of BREC's Baton Rouge Zoo, was recently elected chair of the board for Species360, an international data sharing company aiding over 1,000 member institutions, including the global community of zoos, aquariums and other wildlife organizations in more than 90 countries. Frost has served on the board for Species360 for five years prior to this election.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business has announced the members of its 2018 Hall of Distinction Class - Claire L. Cagnolatti and Maurice J. "Skip" Robichaux III. This year's class will be inducted at the Hall of Distinction Banquet, which the college will host at the Business Education Complex on Friday, March 16.

BATON ROUGE – A study by the Economics & Policy Research Group at the E. J. Ourso College of Business has determined that LSU’s economic impact on Louisiana totals $5.1 billion. This marks the first time that the impact of all eight LSU campuses – LSU, the LSU AgCenter, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, LSU-Alexandria, LSU-Eunice, LSU-Shreveport, and the LSU Health Sciences Centers in Shreveport and New Orleans – has been illustrated from the state level and on a campus-by-campus basis.

BATON ROUGE - LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business students are invited to learn about the oil and gas industry from Loren Scott, professor emeritus and Louisiana Economic Outlook author. The presentation will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2018 from 3 - 5 p.m. in room 2520 located in the Business Education Complex on the LSU campus.

BATON ROUGE - Nicole Wesley, a master of public administration student in the LSU Public Administration Institute, was selected as a 2018 American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) Founders' Fellow.

BATON ROUGE - U.S. News & World Report released its 2018 Best Online MBA Program rankings today, placing the LSU Online Flores MBA Program T-41 among public colleges and universities and T-51 overall on its list of 267 ranked programs.

BATON ROUGE - James B. Henry, the former dean of the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business, passed away on December 28, 2017, in Naples, Florida surrounded by his family. Henry served as dean from 1984 until 1994.

BATON ROUGE - Registration is open for P3s: The Ins and Outs of Public Private Partnerships, a symposium to be held from 1-6 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 9 at the Business Education Complex on the LSU campus. This seminar is sponsored by the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business and the Urban Land Institute - Louisiana District Council.

BATON ROUGE - E. J. Ourso College of Business graduate Calli Farrell of Gretna, La. was one of 10 graduates who received the LSU Distinguished Communicator Award during LSU's 294th commencement exercises.

Journal of Management accepted a paper written by Thomas Greckhamer, professor in the Rucks Department of Management in LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business, and Furkan Gur, an assistant professor at Northern Illinois University who graduated with a PhD in management from the E. J. Ourso College of Business in 2016.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU Center for Internal Auditing (LSUCIA) will hold a conference for alumni and friends of the program on Oct. 16-17, 2017. The conference, to be held at L'Auberge Casino Hotel in Baton Rouge, allows attendees to network and share ideas while gaining continuing professional education.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Executive Education's Breakfast to Business series will host "Taking Control of Your Retirement Portfolio" on Tuesday, Dec. 5 from 7:30 - 8:30 a.m. in room 1420 of the LSU Business Education Complex.

BATON ROUGE - Registration is open now for the 2018 LSU Tax Seminar to be held Jan. 4-5, at the Business Education Complex on the LSU campus. This seminar is sponsored by the Department of Accounting in the E. J. Ourso College of Business.

BATON ROUGE - Law enforcement officers, representatives from state agencies and safety stakeholders were in attendance at the Traffic Records User Conference held on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017 at the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business Education Complex. The conference was sponsored by the Louisiana Traffic Records Coordinating Committee (TRCC) which includes the Highway Safety Research Group (HSRG), a division of the E. J. Ourso College of Business.

BATON ROUGE - A trio of LSU Department of Accounting faculty collaborated on a paper that was accepted for publication in Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory. "Auditors and Disclosure Quality: The Case of Major Customer Disclosures" was written by Joseph Legoria, associate professor, Ken Reichelt, associate professor and Jared Soileau, assistant professor.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Executive Education will offer a Central Louisiana Emerging Leaders/Rising Stars Program beginning in January 2018. The program will be held at Crest Industries in Pineville. The deadline to register is Dec. 5, 2017.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business announced a major grant that will expand entrepreneurship research, education and outreach. The Charles Koch Foundation will provide $5.6 million to support the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute (SEI), an interdisciplinary institute fostering entrepreneurship through educational initiatives, applied research and outreach.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business will announce a multimillion-dollar gift during its Entrepreneurship Celebration to be held Thursday, Nov. 9 from 1:30-2:30 p.m. This event is open to the press and invited guests.

BATON ROUGE - The Public Administration Institute Student Association will host a symposium on "The Role of Non-Profits and Lobbying in the Healthcare Field" on Wednesday, Nov. 8, from 4:30-6 p.m. in room 1620 of the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business Education Complex.

BATON ROUGE - In 1980, LSU Department of Finance instructor Bucky Kilbourne (Humanities & Social Sciences, '72) was the treasurer of National Convenience Stores and interviewing financial analyst candidates. One
candidate, Wes Jablonski (Business, '76), was warned that the headhunter had been unable to fill the
position for six months.

BATON ROUGE, LA. -- The first class of military veterans in the Louisiana Veteran Entrepreneurship Program began coursework at the program's inaugural boot camp today, with Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Joey Strickland, Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Don Pierson and other officials welcoming them at the Louisiana Business & Technology Center in LSU Innovation Park.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business will welcome a technology and innovation seminar on Friday, Oct. 27. "Technology and Innovation: The Future is Here," will explore the relationship between emerging technologies and liberty. The event will be held in the auditorium, room 1510, of the Business Education Complex on the LSU campus.

BATON ROUGE - Thomas Greckhamer, associate professor in the E. J. Ourso College of Business Rucks Department of Management, was recently featured in Harvard Business Journal for his paper accepted by the Strategic Management Journal.

BATON ROUGE - "Politics and Entrepreneurship in the U.S.," a paper co-authored by LSU Department of Economics faculty members Louis-Philippe Beland and Bulent Unel was accepted for publication by the Canadian Journal of Economics.

BATON ROUGE - "The Mismatch between Expectations and Realities of AS4 Audits: A Post-Implementation Research Analysis" by Sanaz Aghazadeh, assistant professor in the LSU Department of Accounting, and Marietta Peytcheva, associate professor at Lehigh University, was accepted for publication in Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory.

BATON ROUGE - On Sept. 7 two finance faculty members from the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business attended a reception to welcome Raphael Bostic, newly appointed president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU Division of Student Affairs recognized E. J. Ourso College of Business Dean Richard White Jr. with the 2017 Academic Partner Award, presented to faculty and staff who partner with the Division of Student Affairs to improve the student experience.

BATON ROUGE - The Highway Safety Research Group (HSRG), a division of the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business' Stephenson Department of Entrepreneurship & Information Systems, recently hosted the 43rd annual International Traffic Records Forum in New Orleans.

BATON ROUGE - The FINRA Series 7, General Securities Representative Exam is required of individuals soliciting the purchase or sale of corporate, municipal and U.S. government securities, options, direct participation programs, investment company products and variable contracts. LSU Executive Education will offer the course over four weekends in August at LSU's Business Education Complex.

BATON ROUGE - The 2017 NBA All-Star Game brought an estimated $44.9 million in spending to the state of Louisiana, according to a new study released today by the LSU Economics & Policy Research Group, or EPRG, at the E. J. Ourso College of Business. The study, "The Economic Impact of the NBA All-Star 2017 Weekend on the Louisiana Economy," assesses the economic impact of the event, which was held in New Orleans in mid-February 2017. The study was commissioned by Louisiana Economic Development, or LED, and conducted with support from the National Basketball Association and the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation.

BATON ROUGE - PhD students from the Department of Accounting at LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business presented their research findings at multiple American Accounting Association (AAA) conferences since the beginning of the year.

BATON ROUGE - Eduniversal released its annual best masters rankings recently, placing the E. J. Ourso College of Business' Master of Public Administration and Master of Science in Finance programs 17th and 20th, respectively, among public colleges and universities in the United States.

BATON ROUGE - Erika Haguette, a December 2016 graduate in international trade and finance with an empirical economic analysis concentration, will start her Master of Science in Economics this fall at New York University on a full tuition scholarship.

BATON ROUGE - Kevin Branley, who earned both his Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Master of Accountancy from the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business, was recently announced as one of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) 2016 Elijah Watt Sells Award winners.

BATON ROUGE - A team of banking students from the LSU Department of Finance made it to the semifinals of the national Conference of State Bank Supervisors Community Bank Case Study Competition, finishing just outside the finalist group of the top five.

BATON ROUGE - Jacques Petit of Luling, La., represented the E. J. Ourso College of Business among the 50 graduates who were awarded the LSU Distinguished Communicator Award during LSU's 292nd commencement exercises.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU Department of Economics will host the Spring 2017 Midwest Macroeconomics Conference May 19-21 at the E. J. Ourso College of Business Education Complex. This is the largest conference devoted to macroeconomics and related topics in North America and the largest macroeconomics conference ever hosted by the university.

BATON ROUGE - Through a grant funded by the Traffic Records Coordinating Committee (TRCC), Louisiana State Police is partnering with Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office and the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office to co-host three series of Crash Investigation I & II courses with dates starting in June. These courses are free of charge and will be taught by Northwestern University instructors. Registration is required, and seating is limited to 36 students per course (limited to two students per course). NOTE: These courses are reserved for P.O.S.T. certified law enforcement officers only.

BATON ROUGE - The E. J. Ourso College of Business announced today that, starting with the fall 2017 semester, it will offer a new Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurship that will only be available as a paired-degree. This means that it must be earned in conjunction with another bachelor's degree from any college on the LSU campus.

BATON ROUGE - Louisiana could lose as much as $3.6 billion in homes, businesses and other infrastructure over the next 50 years if the state takes no action to curb its coastal land loss crisis, according to a new study released today by the LSU Economics & Policy Research Group at the E. J. Ourso College of Business. The study, "Regional Impacts of Coastal Land Loss and Louisiana's Opportunity for Growth," comes out as the state is reviewing the Draft 2017 Coastal Master Plan. The study was commissioned by Environmental Defense Fund and builds upon a previous 2015 study by LSU and the RAND Corporation.

​BATON ROUGE - Since the inception of Lemonade Day Louisiana in 2010, the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute (SEI) has been a partner with the organization, preparing thousands of backpacks for program participants each year. Over the past six years, SEI has also served as host for the Baton Rouge kickoff press conference for Lemonade Day Louisiana, while the students, faculty and staff have volunteered to assist in different Lemonade Day events across the Baton Rouge Metro area.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU Sales Team finished first at the 2017 Bayou Sales Challenge at Nicholls State University, beating Florida State University, Nicholls State, Illinois State University, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Southern University and Xavier University of New Orleans.

BATON ROUGE - The Public Administration Institute Student Association will host a symposium on "The Disaster Recovery Management Process at the State, Local, and Federal Levels" on Monday, March 13, from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. in room 1125 of the E. J. Ourso College of Business Education Complex.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Professional Sales students recently competed in business-to-business, or B2B, sales scenarios for scholarship awards during the E. J. Ourso College of Business Professional Sales Institute's second annual Internal Sales Competition and Career Fair.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business has announced the members of its 2017 Hall of Distinction Class - Sarah Borders, Jim Parr and David B. Songy. This year's class will be inducted at the Hall of Distinction Banquet, which the college will host at the Business Education Complex on Friday, March 31.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU Professional Sales Institute has been accepted as an associate member in the University Sales Center Alliance, a consortium of sales centers that connects university faculty members with different backgrounds and areas of expertise to advance the sales profession through teaching, research and outreach.

BATON ROUGE - On its second visit to the National Diversity Case Competition, the E. J. Ourso College of Business Diversity Diplomats team finished third among 35 schools, repeating their showing at last year's event.

BATON ROUGE - U.S. News & World Report released its 2017 Best Online MBA Program rankings today, placing the LSU Online Flores MBA Program T-38 among public colleges and universities and T-47 overall on its list of 239 ranked programs.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Executive Education's Breakfast to Business series continues with "A Glimpse of Digital Era Professional Selling" on Tuesday, Jan. 31 from 7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. in room 1420 of the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business Education Complex.

August 1, 2017
​Ma​son Joe
​Since mid-2015 professor Joe Mason in the Department of Finance at LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business has been participating in a collaborative effort spearheaded by the Federal Reserve known as the Faster Payments Task Force. The group was tasked with producing a faster payment system that is "safe, efficient and broadly accessible" in the face of rapidly changing technologies. On Monday, July 24, 2017 the Federal Reserve announced the conclusion of the initiative with the issuance of a final report entitled, "The U.S. Path to Faster Payments: A Call to Action."

BATON ROUGE - "Federal Subsidization and State Medicaid Provision," a paper by LSU Economics and Policy Research Group Director Stephen Barnes, was recently accepted for publication by Review of Economic Dynamics.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Professional Sales students recently competed in business-to-business, or B2B, sales scenarios for the Jack W. Salisbury Scholarship Awards during the E. J. Ourso College of Business Professional Sales Institute's first annual Internal Sales Competition and Career Fair.

BATON ROUGE - For poorly performing companies, owning up to their mistakes is the best course of action if they want to see improved performance. Those that blame their mistakes on forces external to the company, such as a poorly performing economy or industry, continue to perform poorly.

May 7, 2015
BATON ROUGE - Management students Amanda Canzoneri, Emily Ponthie and Francesca Rosato were recognized for their academic excellence at the E. J. Ourso College of Business Spring Awards Ceremony on April 21 in the Rotunda of the Business Education Complex. During the event, the college recognized outstanding individual students, student organizations and inducted new members into Beta Gamma Sigma.

May 5, 2015
BATON ROUGE - What impact do right-to-work laws - laws which guarantee no person can be compelled as a condition of employment to join, not join or pay dues to a labor union - have on state-level labor market outcomes?

BATON ROUGE - Don Chance, the James C. Flores Endowed Chair of MBA Studies and a professor in the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business Department of Finance, has received the Outstanding Contribution to CFA Institute Education Programs Award. The CFA Institute Board of Governors will make a monetary donation in Chance's name to an organization that supports the mission of the CFA Institute.

BATON ROUGE - Bulent Unel, associate professor in the E. J. Ourso College of Business Department of Economics, recently authored a paper accepted by the B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy. His paper, "Human Capital Formation and International Trade," develops a two-country, two-sector model of trade where the only difference between two countries is the cost of human capital formation.

BATON ROUGE - Nathan Bragaw, assistant professor of management in the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business, was one of three local business professionals featured in the Baton Rouge Business Report's recent "Case Study: What Should I Consider Before Seeking a Business Loan?" article.

BATON ROUGE - The Highway Safety Research Group at the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business has released the 2013 Louisiana Traffic Records Data Report. According to Helmut Schneider, head of the group and chair of the E. J. Ourso College's Information Systems & Decision Sciences Department, early submission of traffic crash statistics this year is due to the cooperation of more than 190 police agencies in Louisiana and their use of the LACRASH software.

BATON ROUGE - The Highway Safety Research Group at the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business has released the 2012 Louisiana Traffic Records Report. This year's report shows a decrease in driver deaths, but the total highway fatality rate increased mostly due to more deaths involving pedestrians and bicycle riders.

BATON ROUGE - The Highway Safety Research Group at the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business has released the 2011 Louisiana Traffic Records Data Report. According to Helmut Schneider, head of the group and chair of the E. J. Ourso College's Information Systems & Decision Sciences Department, early submission of traffic crash statistics this year is due to the cooperation of more than 170 police agencies in Louisiana and their use of the LACRASH software.

BATON ROUGE - LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business recently held its annual Spring Awards Ceremony in the Business Education Complex Rotunda. During the event, the college recognized outstanding individual students and inducted new members into Beta Gamma Sigma.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU Public Administration Institute recently celebrated Barbara Goodson as its 2017 Master of Public Administration Alumnus of the Year during this year's Public Administration Institute Student Association (PAISA) Day event.

BATON ROUGE - LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business graduates Erika Haguette of Lake Charles, La. and Dylan Perez of Covington, La. were each recognized as University Medalists during the Fall 2016 Diploma Ceremony.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Executive Education's Rising Stars Program is accepting registrations for its February cohort. The program will run Feb. 6 - 8, 2017 at the E. J. Ourso College Business Education Complex on the campus of LSU. The deadline to register is Jan. 20.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Executive Education's Executive Development Program (EDP) is accepting applications for its Spring 2017 cohort. The 10-day program will be held at the E. J. Ourso College Business Education Complex on Feb. 6 - 8, March 8 - 10, and March 27 - 30.

BATON ROUGE - Some of LSU's best and brightest students - President's Alumni Scholars and Flagship Scholars - and the donors who funded their scholarships were recognized at the LSU Alumni Association Scholars Banquet in November.

BATON ROUGE - Flores MBA students Jeevan Kodadhala of Baton Rouge; Wesley Ladd of Mayfield, Ky.; and Harsha Sirigireddy of Baton Rouge took the top prize in this year's Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Cup Competition, winning a team cash prize of $2,000.

BATON ROUGE - Alex von Springer, second-year student in the E. J. Ourso College of Business Flores MBA Program, has already been recognized for her success in the classroom, earning the 2016 Outstanding MBA Student Award earlier this year.

BATON ROUGE - Tommy Karam wears many hats at LSU. He is a senior instructor in the E. J. Ourso College of Business Flores MBA Program, the Department of Marketing and the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute. Perhaps he is best known, however, in larger circles as the personal media trainer to the LSU Tiger Football team.

BATON ROUGE - ExxonMobil presented a check for $1.3 million to the LSU Foundation this semester as part of the ExxonMobil Foundation's 2015 Educational Matching Gift Program and its departmental grant program.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Professor of Finance Joseph Mason and a study he conducted for the Institute for Energy Research were both quoted in an article by the Wall Street Journal titled "Donald Trump's Economic Plan Up Close Doesn't Add Up."

BATON ROUGE - The LSU Center for Energy Studies and the LSU Economics & Policy Research Group will present Energy Summit 2016: "Managing through Energy Challenges," on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at the Energy, Coast & Environment Building at LSU.

BATON ROUGE - Members of the LSU Student Finance Association visited New York City to meet with E. J. Ourso College of Business Alumni and gain exposure to the daily activity in the financial district and surrounding area. The trip is an annual tradition, with SFA members traveling to the "Big Apple" during fall break.

BATON ROUGE - The ranked listing of the 2016 LSU 100: Fastest Growing Tiger Businesses was announced Oct. 13 at the Honoree Reception and Awards Dinner held at the L'Auberge Casino Hotel in Baton Rouge.

BATON ROUGE - The E. J. Ourso College of Business Department of Economics will host Cornell University Economist Robert H. Frank on Friday, Oct. 28 for a public lecture at 2:30 p.m. in the Business Education Complex Auditorium.

BATON ROUGE - Keri Larson, assistant professor in the Department of Information Systems & Decision Sciences, is one of eight LSU faculty - and the only one from the E. J. Ourso College of Business - selected to represent the university as part of the Southeastern Conference's 2016-2017 Faculty Travel Program.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Executive Education's Breakfast to Business series will host "Breaking Bad: How Your Emotions Impact Your Business and Financial Situation" on Tuesday, Nov. 3 from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in room 1420 of the LSU Business Education Complex.

BATON ROUGE - INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education, announced the 83 recipients of its annual Higher Education Excellence in Diversity - or HEED - Award. For the fifth year in a row, LSU was among that number.

BATON ROUGE - A pair of doctoral students from the LSU Department of Accounting - Laura Alford of Natchitoches, La. and JP Park of Baton Rouge - had papers they co-authored presented at the American Accounting Association Annual Meeting, which was held Aug. 6-10.

BATON ROUGE - Stephen Barnes, director of the LSU Economics & Policy Research Group and assistant professor in the Department of Economics, was interviewed by The Advocate regarding the 2015 Louisiana Health Insurance Survey conducted by EPRG and the Public Policy Research Lab at the LSU Manship School.

BATON ROUGE - Louisiana is the only state in the Deep South that has approved Medicaid expansion. To help the state prepare for this, researchers from LSU conducted the most comprehensive assessment of the current health insurance status of the population. The 2015 Louisiana Health Insurance Survey, or LHIS, provides a snapshot of insurance coverage for adults who are eligible for Medicaid to assist in planning and to provide a benchmark for future comparisons tracking changes brought on by the policy.

BATON ROUGE - LSU has announced the list of the sixth annual LSU 100: Fastest Growing Tiger Businesses. The honoree reception and dinner will be held at L'Auberge Casino Hotel on Thursday, Oct. 13, in Baton Rouge.​

BATON ROUGE - The numbers are staggering. Thirty-one inches of rain in 15 hours in Livingston Parish alone, 13 people dead across five parishes, 20 parishes designated as disaster areas, and more than 30,000 residents and 1,400 pets rescued.

BATON ROUGE - Michelle Boullion, interim director of LSU Executive Education and adjunct faculty member in the Rucks Department of Management, has been named program director of the E. J. Ourso College of Business Certified Financial Planning-Board Certified programs.

BATON ROUGE - By the end of the LSU Department of Accounting's 13th annual Fraud & Forensic Accounting Conference this week, those in the Crowne Plaza Hotel's packed ballroom had gained two days worth of insight from leaders in the field.

BATON ROUGE - Before Mitchell Miller, a Spring 2016 graduate of the E. J. Ourso College of Business in international trade and finance, earned his diploma, he felt his education lacked one vital ingredient - actual experience with international trade and finance.

BATON ROUGE - Next year, LSU research associate and recent LSU Master of Public Administration graduate Alvaro Armas will be one of two Knauss Fellows from the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program serving in Washington, D.C.

​BATON ROUGE - Rajesh Narayanan, chair in the LSU Department of Finance, was recently interviewed on WWL Radio's Think Tank Program. Narayanan discussed Blockchain, a technology that lets "companies make and verify transations on a network instantaneously without a central authority," according to the Wall Street Journal.

BATON ROUGE - Countries with stronger investor protection experience a delayed decline in audit quality over the tenure of their auditor. This is the conclusion of a recent study by Associate Accounting Professor Ken Reichelt, co-authored with C.S. Agnes Cheng of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and two graduates of the LSU Department of Accounting's PhD program - Joseph A. Johnston and Lily Z. Brooks.

BATON ROUGE - During the E. J. Ourso College of Business graduation ceremony on Friday, May 13, LSU Senior and Student Government President Andrew Mahtook received the second annual Sean O'Keefe Leadership Award. President F. King Alexander presented the $10,000 cash award to Mahtook, a finance major from Lafayette, La.

BATON ROUGE - LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business held its annual Spring Awards Ceremony on April 25 in the Rotunda of the Business Education Complex. During the event, the college recognized outstanding individual students, student organizations and inducted new members into Beta Gamma Sigma.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU Public Administration Institute recently celebrated Kimberly Robinson as its 2016 Master of Public Administration Alum of the Year at its Public Administration Institute Student Association (PAISA) Day event.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business has maintained its business accreditation by AACSB International - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Founded in 1916, AACSB International is the longest-serving global accrediting body for business schools that offer undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees in business and accounting.

BATON ROUGE - During a visit to Tulane University, PhD students from LSU's Department of Accounting had the opportunity to meet with Mark DeFond, editor of The Accounting Review. The students - Russell Barber, Pradeep Sapkota, Dan Shaw, JC White, Stephanie Merrell and JP Park - were there for a workshop presentation by DeFond and met with him separately following the presentation.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Flores MBA students Alex von Springer and Ramon Hardy were both recognized with the Outstanding MBA Student Award at the E. J. Ourso College of Business Spring Awards Ceremony on Monday, April 25.

BATON RO​UGE - The E. J. Ourso College of Business Department of Accounting hosted its annual Regional Research Conference on April 15 in the Business Education Complex with the University of Alabama's Ernst & Young Professor of Accounting Rick Hatfield serving as the keynote speaker.

BATON ROUGE - A group of students from LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business continued the institution's recent run of success in competitions by finishing third in the 2016 ARGUS Software University Challenge.

BATON ROUGE - In its first time competing, a team of LSU Accounting students placed first at the 2016 Deloitte National Accounting Case Competition, beating Brigham Young University, University of Notre Dame, University of Missouri, Florida A&M University and Miami University of Ohio.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Public Administration Institute Director and Professor Jared Llorens was elected to the American Society for Public Administration, or ASPA, National Council and will serve as representative District III.

BATON ROUGE - The U.S. Department of Education announced today the appointment of Kim Hunter Reed, a 1995 graduate of the E. J. Ourso College of Business Master of Public Administration program, as deputy undersecretary, effective immediately.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Rucks Department of Management Associate Professor Thomas Greckhamer has been invited to serve as associate editor of Organizational Research Methods, a journal established to promote a more effective understanding of current and new methodologies as applied in organizational research.

BATON ROUGE - Since the inception of Lemonade Day Louisiana in 2010, LSU's E.J. Ourso College of Business Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute (SEI) has been a continuous partner with the organization, preparing thousands of backpacks for program participants. Over the past five years, SEI has served as host for the Baton Rouge kick-off press conference for Lemonade Day Louisiana, while the students, faculty and staff have volunteered to assist in different Lemonade Day events across the Baton Rouge metro area.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business Flores MBA Program improved on its 2016 "Best Business School" ranking by U.S. News & World Report, moving up 11 spots among public institutions in the 2017 rankings to No. 33.

BATON RO​UGE - LSU Master of Public Administration students Kristen Smith and Mason Hess recently traveled to Georgia State University to participate in the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA)'s Second Annual Student Simulation Competition on Global Climate Change. The two were just a pair of 375 graduate students from around the world competing at eight regional sites.

BATON​ ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge Parish Library successfully launched its 10th annual One Book One Community (OBOC) program at the Main Library at Goodwood based on this year's book selection, "Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long," by E. J. Ourso College of Business Dean Richard D. White Jr.

BATON ROUGE - "Legal Services: Auditing the Process, 2nd edition," the latest book by LSU Flores MBA Program and Department of Finance Senior Instructor James S. Fargason, is now available on Amazon.com and other book retailers.

BATON ROUGE - Donald Chance, professor in the Department of Finance and Flores MBA Program, was recently quoted by Politifact in an article on the validity of Ohio Governor John Kasich's assessment of his state's credit rating.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU Flores MBA Program's team of Parker Cramer, Steven Goyne, Lauren Breaux and Sayre Phinney finished fourth at the Katz Invitational Case Competition at the University of Pittsburgh, besting schools like the University of Notre Dame, Penn State University and Carnegie Mellon University.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business has announced the members of its 2016 Hall of Distinction Class - Deke Carbo, Fernando Guerrero, James O. Harp Jr. and Steven Walker. This year's class will be inducted at the Hall of Distinction Banquet, which the college will host at the Business Education Complex on Friday, March 4.

BATON ROUGE - On its initial visit to the National Diversity Case Competition, the E. J. Ourso College of Business Diversity Diplomats placed third among 34 schools, finishing only behind the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Southern California.

BATON ROUGE - Eduniversal released its annual best masters rankings recently, placing the E. J. Ourso College of Business' Master of Public Administration and Master of Science in Finance programs ninth and 11th, respectively, among public colleges and universities in the United States.

BATON ROUGE - As the state's flagship university, LSU has a long history of providing objective research to inform policy and business decisions. To continue and expand on that tradition, the E.J. Ourso College of Business created the LSU Economics & Policy Research Group. The new research group was formed out of the college's Division of Economic Development, which has produced a widely used employment forecast for decades.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU Professional Sales Institute was featured by the Baton Rouge Business Report in its Daily Report PM Edition on Thursday, Dec. 3. The PSI is housed within the Department of Marketing.

BATON ROUGE - The Louisiana banking industry has undergone significant consolidation over the past five years, with a number of small- and medium-sized banks being absorbed by their larger counterparts.

BATON ROUGE - Two members of the LSU Tigers Marching Band won the Fourth Annual LSU Elevator Pitch Night competition on Wednesday evening for their invention that enables band members, while marching, to read music from smart devices instead of old-fashioned flip books.

BATON ROUGE - "Intellectual Property: Auditing the Process, 2nd edition," the third and latest book by LSU Flores MBA Program and Department of Finance Senior Instructor James S. Fargason, is now available.

BATON ROUGE - Members of the LSU Student Finance Association visited New York City to meet with E. J. Ourso College of Business Alumni and gain exposure to the daily activity in the financial district and surrounding area. The trip is an annual tradition, with SFA members traveling to the "Big Apple" during fall break.

BATON ROUGE - Jenee' Latrice Porter, a business administration major with a specialization in internal audit and a minor in dance, was recently featured as "The Next Generation of Internal Audit" by The Institute of Internal Auditors.

BATON ROUGE - Proposed increases in federal environmental regulations and volatile energy prices could hamper Louisiana's economic growth over the next two years, according to LSU Economics Professor Emeritus Loren Scott, who delivered his annual economic outlook at the Baton Rouge Business Report's Top 100 Luncheon today.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Department of Finance Professor Joseph Mason's paper, "Overview and Structure of Financial Supervision and Regulation in the U.S.," was recently published by the European Parliament's Policy Department on Economic and Scientific Policy.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Department of Finance Professor Joseph Mason testified on Tuesday before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources about the impacts of federal policies on energy production and economic growth in the Gulf of Mexico.

BATON ROUGE - During the Katrina & Rita: A Decade of Research & Response Symposium on Friday, Aug. 28, LSU awarded Adam Grashoff, a native of Mandeville, La., the inaugural Sean O'Keefe Leadership Award. O'Keefe, who was on-hand for the event, presented the $10,000 cash award to Grashoff, an accounting major planning to graduate in May 2016.

BATON ROUGE - Ten years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast, LSU researchers have analyzed and documented the recovery effort for the state. Initial reports have been released this week.

BATON ROUGE - In a recent study by U.S. News & World Report on business schools with the largest full-time female MBA enrollment, the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business' Flores MBA Program ranked ninth in the nation, with 52.9 percent of its students being female in the 2014-2015 academic year.

BATON ROUGE - LSU's Beta Chi chapter of the Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity has received the Chapter of the Year award for the second year in a row. It is one out of 15 chapters nationwide to receive this honor and one of the only chapters in its region to do so.

LSU Economics Professor Naci Mocan and PhD student Luiza Pogorelova made Bloomberg news recently. Mocan and Pogorelova found a link between marginal tax rates and hours worked and confirmed earlier work by Nobel Laureate Ed Prescott on why some countries work less.

BATON ROUGE - Jared Llorens, director of the E.J. Ourso College of Business Public Administration Institute, has assumed editorship of Public Personnel Management, a quarterly publication specifically for human resource executives and managers in the public sector.

LSU Economics Professor Naci Mocan presented his paper "Understanding Crime: Beyond the Second Generation Research" on June 28 at the Workshop on Institutions, Individual Behavior, and Economic Outcomes organized by the Centre for North South Economic Research, Department of Economic Science at the University di Cagliari. The series of workshops was held in Alghero, Sardinia in Italy.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Economics Associate Professor Areendam Chanda visited Dalian, China to take part in a seminar at Dongbei University of Economics and Finance on June 10-14. Chanda had the opportunity to listen to the dean of Dongbei's Institute of Social and Economic Research discuss the possibility of collaborative research funded by the International Faculty Cooperation Grants Program of the Chinese Government. Two former LSU Economics PhD students, Xianliang Tian and Qeqiong He, are faculty members at Dongbei University and also took part in the seminar and discussion.

BATON ROUGE - Students in the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute's (SEI) Fellows Program mentored youth in the Big Buddy Program this spring to teach them entrepreneurship, culminating in their participation in Lemonade Day Louisiana, held May 2.

​​BATON ROUGE - LSU Economics Professor Carter Hill has been invited to teach a Ph.D. course in econometrics this summer at the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. The course is targeted primarily to Ph.D. students in accounting at the school.

BATON ROUGE - "Baumol and Bowen Cost Effects in Research Universities," a paper by LSU Economics Professor Carter Hill and former faculty member Robert Martin, was recently listed on the Social Science Research Network's top 10 download list for Econometric Modeling: Microeconomics Journals.

BATON ROUGE - LSU Assistant Professor of Economics Louis-Phillipe Beland's research on how the presence of mobile phones in schools impacts student achievement has made the rounds in recent weeks, appearing in publications around the world.

BATON ROUGE - The New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA-NJ) has recognized ikon.5 Architects of Princeton with a merit award in the built open category in recognition of its work on the E. J. Ourso College of Business.

BATON ROUGE - U.S. News & World Report released today its rankings of the 2015 Best Online Programs for Veterans. New to the rankings, which are now in their third year, is the best online MBA program for veterans list.

BATON ROUGE - It's been an eventful 25 months for Austin Hatch. He moved his family across the country to California, welcomed his first child into the world and on Friday, May 15, became the first-ever graduate of the LSU Online Flores MBA Program.

BATON ROUGE - Four senior students from the E. J. Ourso College of Business were named to the Tiger Twelve for 2015 - Andree Comeaux, economics; Lauren Landry, marketing; Arenn Martin, management; and Hannah Suffern, finance.

BATON ROUGE - LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business honored 16 MBA students at its annual Spring Awards Ceremony on April 21, in the Rotunda of the Business Education Complex. During the event, the college recognized outstanding individual students, student organizations and inducted new members into Beta Gamma Sigma.

BATON ROUGE - LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business held its annual Spring Awards Ceremony on April 21, in the Rotunda of the Business Education Complex. During the event, the college recognized outstanding individual students, student organizations and inducted new members into Beta Gamma Sigma.

BATON ROUGE - LSU's Public Administration Institute Director James Richardson and the rest of the Louisiana Tax Study Group were recently featured on Forbes.com for their report recommending changes to the state's taxes.

BATON ROUGE - Jasmeane Brock, a December 2014 graduate of the E. J. Ourso College of Business Master of Public Administration program, has been named a finalist for the 2015 Presidential Management Fellows, or PMF, program.

BATON ROUGE - The team of Parker Cramer, Steven Goyne, Sayre Phinney and Faisal Qayyum reached the Final Four of the Southeastern Conference MBA Case Competition, ultimately finishing fourth behind the University of Florida, the University of Kentucky and the University of South Carolina.

BATON ROUGE - David Harms, a graduate student in the E. J. Ourso College of Business Department of Finance, finished with the highest score worldwide in the month of February on the Bloomberg Institute's Aptitude Test.

BATON ROUGE - Justin Cook, an LSU Economics PhD graduate in 2012, was recently featured in The Economist for his research into how the ability to digest milk affects the economic fortunes of countries.

BATON ROUGE - Students interested in a finance career in the energy industry are invited to attend a speakers panel featuring E. J. Ourso College of Business alumni Lance Dardis, Jordan Marye and Patrick McWilliams.

BATON ROUGE - Over the past five years, Lemonade Day Louisiana has provided more than 50,000 youth across Louisiana with the opportunity to become entrepreneurs. On Saturday, May 2, these young entrepreneurs are expected to participate in the fifth annual Lemonade Day, which is set to be largest to date, since entrepreneurs John Georges and Todd Graves introduced the program in 2010.

BA​TON ROUGE - Economics Professor James Richardson is part of a group of economists working on a project called the Louisiana Tax Study, an examination of the state's taxing structure. The group has been charged by the Louisiana Legislature with producing long-term solutions.

BATON ROUGE - Despite a drop in the rankings, the LSU Flores MBA Program maintained its spot among the top 50 public institutions in the U.S. News & World Report's "Best Business Schools" ranking for 2016. The program is ranked No. 44 among public institutions and 77 (tie) overall.

BATON ROUGE -- The LSU Sales Team finished third at the Bayou Sales Challenge, held March 5-6 at Nicholls State University. Other competing schools included Florida State University, Nicholls State University, William Paterson University and Xavier University.

BATON ROUGE - Results for the 2014 Uniform Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Examination were released recently by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) and LSU accounting graduates finished with a top-10 ranking among some of the nation's largest accounting programs.

BATON ROUGE - The LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business has announced the members of its 2015 Hall of Distinction Class - Matt McCarroll, Dale Redman and Richard Sturlese. This year's class will be inducted at the Hall of Distinction Banquet, which the college will host at the Business Education Complex on Friday, March 6.

BATON ROUGE - Fang Yang, assistant professor in the E. J. Ourso College of Business Department of Economics, recently co-authored a paper accepted by the Journal of Labor Economics. "Skill-Biased Technical Change and the Cost of Higher Education," written with State University of New York-Albany Associate Professor John B. Jones, documents the growth in higher education costs and tuition over the past 50 years.

NEW YORK, NY - On October 1, 2014, 16 members of the LSU Student Finance Association (SFA) visited New York City to meet with E. J. Ourso College of Business alumni and gain exposure to the daily activity in the financial district and surrounding area. The trip is an annual tradition, with SFA members traveling to the "Big Apple" during fall break.

BATON ROUGE - In 1985, the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) designated LSU as its pilot school, making it the first university-based internal auditing training program in the world. Thirty years later, what was once the LSU Internal Audit Pilot School is now the Center for Internal Auditing and the benchmark for similar programs around the world.

BATON ROUGE - Both the Master of Science in Finance and Master of Public Administration programs at the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business were ranked in the Top 40 in North America by Eduniversal in its annual Best Masters rankings for 2014-15.